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Syria Dropping Off The Internet In 2012 Was Result Of NSA Hack Gone Wrong, Not Syrian Government

You may recall that, back in 2012, Syria suddenly dropped off the face of the internet. It actually happened twice. There was all sorts of speculation about how it happened.

At the time, Cloudflare’s analysis was one of the most thorough, noting that it almost certainly “was done through updates in router configurations” rather than a physical failure or a cable cut or something. Of course, everyone assumed that it was the Syrian government, trying to cut off access to the outside world.

However, in James Bamford’s big Wired article about Ed Snowden, Snowden reveals it was actually an NSA hack gone wrong